I invite you to find a comfortable seated position,
Taking any shape or form that you feel comfortable taking at this time.
Please feel free to experience this meditation and participate with your eyes open or closed.
If you do choose to meditate with your eyes open,
For whatever reason,
Please feel free to close the eyes,
Open the eyes,
Move the body as much as you feel you need to during this time together.
With the eyes open,
You can invite the gaze to bring in the entirety of the room all at once.
And if the eyes are slowly closing,
You can very gently begin to move in towards our vision of the emotional and physical body,
Bringing an awareness,
Whether with our eyes open or closed,
To the experience in the emotional body,
The physical body and the energetic body.
And I invite us today to bring an awareness of these experiences,
Similar to watching a movie just on the screen in front of us.
So whatever it is that we notice as we meditate together today is something passing by on the screen in front of us.
And when we notice something that really captivates or creates an emotional or a physical response,
We can say,
Wow,
What an interesting story I am so captivated.
Look at the response that this has had to my body,
Wow,
How interesting.
And for this time,
To allow it to pass and to see what comes next,
To see how the story unfolds in front of us.
And before we bring our awareness to this unfolding story,
Let's invite the body and the mind to get comfortable in taking this opportunity.
Taking a few deep breaths,
Inhale through the nose,
Exhale through the mouth.
Two more times,
Just like that on your own time,
Inhaling through the nose.
Exhale through the mouth,
Letting go,
Letting go.
One more time,
Inhale through the nose,
Feeling the body,
The lungs with breath.
And exhale through the mouth.
And feel free to take as many of those breaths as you would like.
Maybe noticing any sensations in the body.
Beginning to bring awareness into the different areas of the body,
We can start down in the tips of our toes,
Through the arches of our feet and our heels,
In through the ankles and the tops of our feet,
Maybe wiggling the toes and noticing any sensations through our feet.
Perhaps we notice the feet feeling warm or cool or cozy and content.
Maybe interacting with our feet in the way of asking,
How are you feeling today?
How are the feet feeling?
What do we notice?
What do our feet have to tell us?
And whatever it is that we hear in response to this question,
We meet with curiosity and gratitude.
Thank you for sharing.
I hear you.
I love you.
I'm here for you.
Gently inviting our focus and our attention up through our shins,
Our calves,
In through the knees,
Our hamstrings and quads.
Inviting our awareness through the lower part of our body.
Maybe taking this opportunity to be fully present with the lower part of our physical body and to ask,
How are you feeling today?
How is the lower part of our physical body feeling?
What does it have to tell us?
And listening for an answer for any form of communication.
Do we notice the legs and the lower body feeling warm or cool or content?
And what do we notice?
What does it have to tell us?
Maybe we take this opportunity to meet this sharing with kindness and with compassion,
With curiosity.
Wow.
I hear you.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing.
I am here for you.
And as sensations through the physical body rise and fall and come and go,
We acknowledge and validate them all.
We love and we acknowledge and validate them all as they come and go like guests passing through our home.
I hear you.
Thank you.
I am here for you.
Goodbye when they're ready to go.
And shifting our focus and our awareness up through our hips and into the sides of our body,
Our rib cage,
The front of our ribs,
Our chest,
The abdomen,
And our stomach,
Shoulder blades,
And down the length of our arms and into the tips of our fingers.
Bringing our awareness and our focus in through the upper body.
What do we notice if we were to ask the upper body,
How are you feeling today?
How is the upper body feeling?
What would it tell us?
What does it have to share?
And perhaps we experience an answer.
Perhaps we hear an answer.
Maybe we feel an answer.
And maybe there is no answer.
There is no reply.
And that's okay too.
Knowing that we're simply asking with curiosity,
Genuine curiosity,
Asking with love,
Asking with kindness and respect.
How is the upper body feeling today?
What do we notice?
What does it have to tell us?
What does it have to communicate?
I hear you.
Thank you for sharing that.
I appreciate you.
You're so brave.
Thank you.
I am here for you.
I love you.
Bringing awareness through the length of our neck and the very small connective tissues through the back of our skull in through our jaw.
I'm taking a little pit stop at the jaw.
How is the jaw feeling today?
Do we notice any tension?
Is the jaw feeling relaxed and calm?
And without judgment,
To observe,
Just checking in,
How is the jaw feeling today?
Maybe offering the jaw a break.
Offering the jaw this opportunity to soften or to let go of any tension if it wants,
If it chooses,
But just to offer the option.
Maybe as the jaw begins to relax,
We notice the tongue relaxing,
The gums relaxing,
Even our teeth relaxing.
How would that feel?
To relax the gums and the teeth.
What would that feel like?
And maybe we try to see how it would feel.
Maybe we save it for another day.
And maybe as the mouth and the jaw relaxes,
We become aware of the small muscles through our face also beginning to relax.
These small delicate muscles to our face do such an amazing job every single day to help us to communicate,
To express ourselves.
And they work so hard for us.
And if we would like to offer all of these little delicate muscles the opportunity to relax and to take a little bit of time to let go of expression.
Maybe to take a little break from tension.
And it's okay wherever we notice tension or sensation.
This is the muscles through the face doing their part.
They're so helpful.
Wow.
What a miracle.
Thank you so much.
And wherever we notice tension,
Maybe inviting it to evaporate or to melt away.
And the face becoming peaceful like the Buddha.
Maybe the corners of our lips gently curl upwards like the Mona Lisa smile.
Signaling to our mind and our body,
To our heart and our spirit that all is well.
Moving down through from the top of the head in through our scalp and the face,
The jaw,
And our neck.
Inviting the head to soften and to let go of any tension.
The ears and the temples,
Peacefulness and light radiating from within.
And the warmth from the Sun shining on us from outside onto the surface.
The length of our arms into the hands and the palms of the hands softening like pools of water the fingers become limp and soft.
The weight of our arms gently invites down the shoulders from the ears.
With our inhale we experience the expansion of our ribcage and with the exhale our upper body and torso softens just a little bit more.
Even the smallest amount.
With our inhale our abdomen and our stomach expand,
Filling with life-giving breath.
And the exhale we experience the fall and the softening of the belly,
The stomach and the abdomen being soft like a pool of water.
Like a beautiful calm lake.
The length through the legs,
Our hips and thighs,
Hamstrings and knees,
Our shins and our calves.
Inviting the legs and our lower body to relax and for any tension to evaporate away.
And to relax even the smallest amount,
Even 1%,
Just to see how it would feel.
To see if it's possible to relax the legs just a little bit more.
Through the arches of our feet,
Our ankles,
Our heels,
The tops of our feet and through each of our toes.
Bringing awareness and being witness to the tension through our feet and our toes,
Simply melting away.
The arches of our feet becoming soft like a small pool of water.
Taking a few deep breaths together in your own time,
Very slowly inhaling through the nose and out through the mouth.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
One more time in through the nose and out through the mouth.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with an ease of heart.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with an ease of heart.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings live with an ease of heart.
Feel free to bask in this peaceful,
Loving space that you have cultivated for as long as you feel comfortable.
Knowing that you can revisit this place at any time,
Slowing down the breath,
Slowing down the body,
And experiencing remembered wellness.
Aum.
